Philly students: Do you care about protecting our drinking water and aquatic wildlife? Have artistic talent? Want to win prizes for yourself, your teachers and your school?

The 2017 Green City, Clean Waters Art Contest is now underway, and the deadline for submissions has just been extended! We want you to send your best creative work showing what people can do to protect our rivers and creeks by Friday, March 17, 2017.

Three winning drawings are selected from each of the four grade groups: K-2nd, 3rd-5th, 6th-8th, and 9th-12th.

For the last eight years, we’ve been working with the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary (PDE) to organize this contest—open to all K-12 students that attend public, private, or home school in Philadelphia—and that’s given us a pretty good idea about what makes for a winning entry.

Erika Shrayer of Baldi Middle School won 1st place for the 6th Grade age group last year. Credit: PWD/PDE

When Philly kids understand what it takes to be a good watershed steward from an early age, it can lead to lifelong habits that help to keep trash and other pollution out of our stormwater system and waterways.

Another reason? Our local schools happen to be packed with creative minds, and these kids seem to be especially good at communicating the basics of good watershed stewardship with art that’s both direct and fun.

Year after year, we’re pleasantly surprised at the quality of the art that comes in, and last year we had over 1,300 submissions. The deadline for 2016 is Friday, February 26.

Kayakers enjoy a free trip on the Delaware during the 2014 Pa. Coast Day Celebration. Credit: Partnership for the Delaware Estuary.

It's once again time for Pennsylvania Coast Day, and that means over 550 people will enjoy a free boat ride on Sept. 12, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., at Penn’s Landing.

The Partnership for the Delaware Estuary (PDE) will give away over 350 tickets for the RiverLink Ferry and 150 tickets for the Patriot during the event, which Philadelphia Water helps to sponsor. Both tours will be narrated, and guests can also enjoy free kayaking and pedal boating in Penn’s Landing Marina.

“Many people don’t realize the Delaware River is something they can experience and enjoy,” said Lisa Wool, program director at PDE. “This festival changes that by getting people on the water with their families, many for the first time.”

Philadelphia Water will also use Coast Day to roll out our new storm drain markers, which are now customized to represent aquatic creatures from each of our city's seven watersheds. Here are two we made for storm drains that feed into the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers:We'll be spreading the word about the new markers and giving out kits community groups can use to mark drains in their neighborhoods. To learn more and order a marking kit for your area, visit this page.

Other attractions include free face painting, free arts and crafts, free prizes, exhibits and more. A shuttle will also take you to our Fairmount Water Works museum site, where programs showcasing the city’s other coast, the tidal Schuylkill River, are always free.

Visitors can also venture inside the Independence Seaport Museum, where admission ranges from $10 to $15. This will get them up close with TEACH FLEET, the world’s largest collection of LEGO model ships. Its centerpiece is the new RV Hugh Sharp, modeled after a research vessel owned by the University of Delaware.
The Philadelphia Ship Model Society will also race motorized models in Penn’s Landing Marina. And the oil-spill boat DELBAY will be open for tours.

That's almost five tons of litter and other pollution that would otherwise be hurting wildlife habitats and damaging a major Philadelphia drinking water source.
So don't just imagine what we could accomplish with a few more volunteer crews—put an exclamation point on the end of your summer and join us!

Clean ups will be held this week and weekend, and continue through Tuesday, September 1. Designated work days will include two shifts, one from 9 a.m. to noon and one from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. In order to coordinate sites, all volunteers must RSVP by clicking here and filling out the form a the bottom of the page. Supplies and free food will be provided.

Living Lands & Waters is an Illinois-based environmental organization established by Chad Pregracke in 1998. Read more about the fascinating story behind Living Lands and Waters on their website. Questions? Contact Living Lands and Waters at 563.505.8321 or amber@livinglandsandwaters.org.

Throughout August, we’ve been working with the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary to turn hand-drawn art submitted by local students into street art that's being placed near stormdrains in select locations across the city.
These fun, eye-catching installations, which originated from 1,300 student submissions, help spread an important message: only rain should go down the drain.

It might seem obvious to many of us, but for a long time, people thought of stormdrains as just another place to get rid of trash and, worse, unwanted household chemicals like motor oil from at-home oil changes, old paint and cleaning fluids. Because these sewers empty directly into the rivers and streams that provide wildlife habitats and our drinking water, that kind of dumping can be very harmful.
With their art, these students are helping to turn the tide on that kind of behavior and reminding all of us to make sure our street inlets are treated like what they are—direct links between our neighborhoods and waterways—and not like Dumpsters.

You can already find student art near Penn's Landing (in the Walnut Street Plaza, near the parking lot); at our Saylor Grove wetland installation in Fairmount Park; at Gifford Park (by the main park entrance) in the Far Northeast; at Picariello Playground (inside the playground) in the Morrell Park neighborhood; and at Lanier Park at 30th Street and Tasker in South Philly.
Over the next week, the creative output of these students will be affixed to the streets, sidewalks or other hard surface near drains in the following places:

If you see some, take a photo and share it on social media with the hashtags #PhillyWaterArt and #CleanWaterArt and help spread this important message! As we do the installations, we’ll take photos and share them, so be sure to follow along on Twitter at @PhillyH2O and @DelawareEstuary.

Click on the image above for larger, shareable version of the event flyer.

Looking for a fun way to do some volunteer work before the summer ends?
Time is running out, but we have just the event for you. Philadelphia Water is joining the nonprofit Living Lands and Waters and the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary in an upcoming Delaware River cleanup event, and we need your help!

Join us as we clean up the Delaware River through September 1. Cleanups will be held on designated work days from 9 a.m. to noon and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. While the deadline for signups was August 14, we're still looking for volunteers on all days. Please join us and RSVP here!

More details will be emailed to volunteers prior to event.
Supplies and free food will be provided, and large groups are encouraged to register now.

Living Lands & Waters is an Illinois-based environmental organization established by Chad Pregracke in 1998. Read more about the fascinating story behind Living Lands and Waters on their website. Questions? Contact Amber at 563.505.8321 or amber@livinglandsandwaters.org.

For 2015, Fishtown and Washington Square West were selected as competing locales for the contest, which has been selecting a special pooch to spread the word about poo-lution since 2011. We’ll be accepting nominations for dogs from those neighborhoods through July 15. Guidelines and submission forms are available here. The Spokesdog program is held annually with the help of our friends at the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary.

As always, the goal is to raise awareness about keeping dog waste out of our waterways by getting it off sidewalks, streets and grass right away with proper disposal techniques. We all know it’s pretty gross (and rude!) when pet owners don’t clean up after their furry friends, but many people don’t think about the health consequences, especially as they relate to water.

When pet waste is left on the sidewalks, streets or other surfaces, it gets washed into street-level sewer intakes by rain and ends up in our creeks and rivers completely untreated. That can lead to the presence of dangerous germs and excess nutrients that make water unsafe for recreation and more expensive to treat.

Decaying pet waste consumes oxygen and sometimes releases ammonia. Low oxygen levels and ammonia can damage the health of fish and other aquatic life. Pet waste carries bacteria, viruses, and parasites that can threaten the health of humans and wildlife. Pet waste also contains nutrients that promote weed and algae growth (eutrophication). Cloudy and green, eutrophic water makes swimming and recreation unappealing or even unhealthy.

As you can see, the environmental and public health threat is serious, and that's why we need a top-notch doggie to help show others the importance of bagging waste and putting it in a proper receptacle.

Typically, 30-80 dogs register in each neighborhood every year, so the competition is no joke. Of those, about a dozen dogs get selected for the doggie pageant, and best in show (determined with online votes in August) becomes Spokesdog.
With the crown come some real responsibilities—and some cool goodies.

Winning spokesdogs and their caretakers will attend at least three community events in 2015, distributing information on living the eco-friendly dog life. Small bag dispensers that clip to leashes and educational tipcards will be provided to hand out at these events. The educational tipcard explains how dog waste left on the ground breaks down and washes into local stormdrains every time it rains.

So, how about those prizes?

The 1st Place Spokesdog—“Philly Water’s Best Friend”—gets the following:

• $200 prize from a local business

• Image used in promotional pieces

• Toy & cookie prize pack

For the Runner Up (picked in case the 1st Place Spokesdog is unable to fulfill their duties):

• $50 prize from a local business

• Toy & cookie prize pack

All finalists in attendance at the awards ceremony will also receive a toy and cookie prize.
If you know of a worthy pup from Washington Square West or Fishtown, send in your application now and vote for them to become Philly famous!

Dozens of budding artists from schools all over the city came out to the Fairmount Water Works to claim their prizes after taking top spots in our Green City, Clean Waters 2015 Art Contest, hosted by Philadelphia Water and the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary (PDE).

Looking at the truly impressive quality of their work, it’s clear that Philadelphia Water is also a big winner this year. Thanks to the more than 1,300 students who took time to create posters and videos reflecting our “Only Rain Down the Storm Drain” theme, we now have tons of incredible art to help spread the word about protecting our watersheds.

“It was really tough for us to pick winners this year because there were just so many amazing submissions to pick from,” Tiffany Ledesma, a judge for K-2nd grade entries and member of the Green City, Clean Waters public engagement team, told students and families at the April 28 ceremony.

Winning students and their teachers from Germantown Friends School, Maritime Academy Charter School, C.C.A Baldi Middle School, St. Hubert Catholic High School for Girls, Archbishop Ryan High School, Philadelphia Center for Arts and Technology (PCAT) at Foundations, Inc. and Aspira, Inc. of Pennsylvania took home gift cards, a variety of art supplies for their schools, framed certificates, and a contest calendar featuring their artwork.

The mission of the PDE (which the Philadelphia Water Department works closely with!) is “to lead science-based and collaborative efforts to improve the tidal Delaware River and Bay, which spans Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.” Among these efforts is Dr. Kreeger’s work on the ecology and restoration of bivalve shellfish and coastal wetlands, as well as climate adaptation, living shorelines, and ecosystem services.

And freshwater mussels are some amazing—if severely challenged—little bivalves in need of restoration. PDE has great info about freshwater mussels including how they, as filter feeders, “suck water in and trap solids such as dirt, algae and other pollutants then release the clean filtered water back into the environment.”

Unfortunately, as the title of Dr. Kreeger’s lecture suggests, the freshwater mussels in this area have faced a steep decline, from over a dozen different species to just one now commonly found in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. The freshwater mussel has been described as “the most imperiled of all organisms in North America.” Dr. Kreeger’s presentation “will describe the fascinating lifestyle and status of freshwater mussels and chronicle how local efforts to restore these animals will protect our waterways.”

Philadelphia is a city filled with street art. In fact, Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Program is the largest public art program in the country and their motto is “…art ignites change.” We agree and we’re looking for some aspiring young artists to create street art that will help us spread the word that pollution entering our storm drains can end up in our rivers.

The Partnership for the Delaware Estuary is now accepting entries on behalf of the Philadelphia Water Department for its Green City, Clean Waters Art Contest! The deadline for entries is February 28, 2015. A brochure with all of the contest rules and specs for the pictures and videos can be found by clicking on this link.

Students in grades K-12 can enter by creating a drawing and/or video showing others how to stop polluted water from entering local storm drains.

Last year’s first-place winner—Esme Fa Harrison from Germantown Friends School—was featured on WHYY’s Newsworks.org after her creation was turned into street art near a Germantown Avenue stormwater inlet. This year’s first-place winner will get to see their artwork digitally enhanced and enlarged to be placed in the streets of Philadelphia, reminding everyone that only rain should go in the storm drain. Please encourage a student you know to enter for a shot at his or her own street art fame!

Other winning drawings will be made into advertisements used on SEPTA buses, featured in a free calendar in the spring, and posted along with winning videos on the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, Philadelphia Water Department Office of Watersheds, and other sponsors’ websites.

Winning individuals and teams will have a chance at gift cards of up to $100 in value, a variety of art supplies for their schools, framed certificates, and a contest calendar featuring their artwork. Teachers of winning students will each receive $50 gift cards. The first three schools or organizations to submit over 100 entries will receive $100 gift cards.